Bob Baffert Has Two Dubai Champs
Trainer Schooled World Cup Victors Silver Charm, Captain Steve
One of America's winningest trainers, Bob Baffert has schooled two of the nation's Dubai Classic champions, Silver Charm in 1998 and Captain Steve in 2001.
Tops among America's winning trainers, Bob Baffert has schooled two of the nation's six Dubai World Cup Classic victors. Silver Charm, sporting two Triple Crown race wins, went to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 1998 and swept past Swain in the Dubai Classic to add to his championships. Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens rode Silver Charm to the wire.
Baffert's second Dubai champion was Captain Steve, a huge Dubai Classic favorite in 2001. Captain Steve won impressively, besting the Japanese mare To The Victory through the stretch. He was piloted by Jerry Bailey, another Hall of Famer, who claimed his third piece of Dubai Classic hardware.
Bill Mott, Richard Mandella, Dale L. Romans, and Kiaran McLaughlin follow Baffert with one win apiece in the Dubai Classic. McLaughlin handled Invasor last year for the USA-based Shadwell Stable owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a brother to the owner of UAE's Godolphin Racing.
Here's a trainer-owner-jockey breakdown of the twelve Dubai Classic winners:
- William I. Mott - trainer --- Allen E. Paulson - owner --- Jerry Bailey - jockey --- Cigar --- 1996 - inaugural Dubai Classic event
- Michael Stoute --- Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum --- Bailey --- Singspiel --- 1997
- Bob Baffert --- Bob and Beverly Lewis --- Gary Stevens --- Silver Charm --- 1998
- Saeed bin Suroor --- Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum --- Richard Hills --- Almutawakel --- 1999
- bin Suroor --- Godolphin Racing --- Frankie Dettori --- Dubai Millennium --- 2000
- Baffert --- Michael E. Pegram --- Bailey --- Captain Steve --- 2001
- bin Suroor --- Godolphin Racing --- Bailey --- Street Cry --- 2002
- bin Suroor --- Godolphin Racing --- Dettori --- Moon Ballad --- 2003
- Richard Mandella --- Diamond A. Racing Corp. --- Alex Solis --- Pleasantly Perfect --- 2004
- Dale L. Romans --- K & S Ramsey --- John Velazquez --- Roses in May --- 2005
- bin Suroor --- Godolphin Racing --- Dettori --- Electrocutionist --- 2006
- Kiaran McLaughlin --- Shadwell Stable --- Fernando Jara --- Invasor --- 2007
All five of the USA entries who prevailed in the Dubai Classic were favorites or a co-favorite. Four of them delivered for the red, white, and blue. Trainers Mott, Baffert, and Mandella are all top ten contenders on the American career earnings list. Mott is among the top ten in career wins, as well, with over 3,000 victories.
Trainer Steve Asmussen will try to add to his own credentials and that of American horses in Dubai when he puts American 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin in this year's World Cup Classic for major owner Jess Jackson. The contest at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai is set for March 29. With a $6 million purse, the Dubai Classic (gr.l), 1-1/4 miles for three-year-olds and up, is the richest race in the world.
Other American entries will appear on the undercard, which includes the Duabi Sheema Classic (gr.l), the Godolphin Mile (gr.ll), the UAE Derby (gr.ll), the Dubai Golden Shaheen (gr.l), and the Dubai Duty Free (gr.l)
Curlin will try to follow in the hoofprints of the only two horses in history who have captured the Dubai Classic championship after scoring in the previous season's Breeders' Cup Classic. Cigar turned that trick when he won the inaugural Dubai Classic in 1996 after taking the 1995 Breeders' Cup, and Pleasantly Perfect reached the same perfection in 2003 and 2004.
